What's New

Developers Diary: March 2016

TRENT to DERBY

Borrowash to Spondon - Scenery and Route Development

This month we have been continuing our development of the Trent to Derby line. Dave has worked hard in finishing all aspects of the station at Borrowash and then continued to develop the scenery beyond. I have been laying the route through to the next station, Spondon. The track almost follows the route of the old Derby Canal to its right while the view of the River Derwent to its left is always not too far away. Spondon Power Station was one of the largest skyline structures just as you left Borrowash and more or less started the change from a very rural environment to the urban sprawl of Derby.

Spondon Power StationSpondon A was built in the 1920s by British Celanese. It was sold to the Nottingham & Derby Power Company in 1929. It was then nationalised before eventually being sold to Courtaulds. Spondon A eventually closed in the early 1980s.In 1959, the Spondon H process steam station opened alongside Spondon A. Spondon H had a capacity of 30 MW using three 10 MW sets, and was unique among the CEGBs power stations as it was designed primarily to produce steam to supply the British Celanese plant. The station had two single-flue concrete chimneys of c.'315 in height, one being demolished in the early 1990s the other in the early 2000s. The station also had four concrete cooling towers of c.'150 in height located c.0.25 miles to the east, these were in practice rarely used. They were demolished in 1984.

​Spondon railway station was one of the lucky ones which escaped the hatchet of the Beeching closures and still survives to this day.Trains to Spondon originally left from the north end of Derby Station before turning east towards Nottingham. However, on 27 June 1867 the Midland Railway opened a new route towards Nottingham (and London) which led from the south end of Derby station (so that Manchester – London trains would no longer have to reverse at Derby). The new route and the old joined immediately west of Spondon, which was to remain a junction station until 1969, when the original, more northerly, connection to Derby was closed as a through route.The station was enlarged in the early 20th century to cope with the volume of traffic for the nearby British Celanese plant. In the 1920s, more than 14,000 worked here. The station is also the location of the junction for rail freight traffic into the British Celanese works.

​British CelaneseNear to the power station and Spondon railway station is Celanese Acetates Ltd, (British Celanese), which does not have any ownership of the power station. The textiles site was built in 1916 to provide waterproofing for aircraft wings, known as British Cellulose & Chemical Manufacturing and made cellulose acetate and Acetic anhydride. ​British Celanese and Courtaulds merged in 1957